Having just flown into Liverpool from Bergerac, the first article to catch my eye from one of my waiting Tablets, 27 June, was "Spread of the French malaise." The only children present in the village church for the only Sunday Mass in a wide geographic area were Bede and Amelia our seven year old bilingual grandchildren born with the aid of IVF.
When later I read that same Tablet's unbelievable leader, "Missing consensus on second marriages," I realised the validity of Olivier Roy's comment, "Religion is more and more seen as weird and unmanageable."Presumably Catholics cohabiting would be required to follow the same penitential pathway? What will the pharisaic rule lovers dream up for the parents of the more than five million children born by artificial reproductive technologies?
Terry Swales, Liverpool
Clifford Longley, daring to think outside the box, raises lively issues about sex, biology, evolution, and human behaviour (The Tablet, Letters, 27 June). Pope Francis has said that “homosexuality is an anthropological regression.” But in keeping with his urging us to think openly and boldly about everything, I have wondered lately what anthropology actually does say about homosexuality.
Given the numbers of homosexuals, not counting those who have not “come out”, we are faced with a multitude who are becoming more and more comfortable in their own shoes as they are integrated into society. This is not a process of “we first endure, then pity, then embrace”, but the facing of ordinary facts and experience. What can the sciences tell us?
The situation calls for serious, thoughtful, and open examination. Can we expect this in the coming Synod on the Family? Given the panicked voice of Parmenidean conservatism, that’s not the way the smart money bets. But then, who expected Pope Francis? Jesus says nothing about family except that it should not get in the way of following him (I just throw that in).
Peter Farley, Brooklyn, USA
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